American Sniper

American Sniper.

Bradley Cooper gave in my opinion the performance of his career. It was a performance as close to honoring Chris Kyle as could be done.

If you’ve not seen American Sniper or for some unknown reason do not know the story of Chris Kyle it would be wise for you to stop reading.

All that said, what is to follow might not be coherent. I’m full of various emotions and those can do interesting things to my brain.



I read American Sniper about two years ago thanks to my brother Kyle. A first hand account of the events of the movie, you should read it. However, physically seeing what went on even as portrayals was something that having my imagination create as I was reading couldn’t compare with. Every shot, the noise, the action is an adrenaline rush from scene to scene. Still, it is not the kills made as much as the quiet moments that truly brings out the emotions in the movie. Moments that show Chris with Taya at home or with his children, the gut-wrenching moments after he shoots a child given a grenade to blow up a convoy or as he’s talking to a child who cannot hear him as the boy holds an RPG aimed at a humvee.

The struggle of a man who has seen many of his friends die and is like a fish out of water as he comes home after each tour is profound. This is truly where Cooper shines. You can see the emotion on his face as a sudden sound brings him back to the battlefield and know that he’s fighting inner demons. Beyond the death and the sacrifices made most telling of all is a scene between Chris and a doctor at a VA hospital. The Doctor asks him if he has regrets over the things he’s done and his response is “I’m fully prepared to answer for every shot I took. I regret the one’s I didn’t get to save.”  He did what he had to do. What he struggled with was not being able to save his fellow Americans. I’ve read the book. I knew going into the film Chris Kyle’s view on what he did overseas in service to his country. But it was still hard to hear the words said. Everything he saw and did and it’s the shots he didn’t get to make that bothered him. That is  what brotherhood looks like.

I held it together well throughout the movie. My chest got tight a few times as you see Taya on the phone with Chris during battle, pregnant with their first child knowing that so many men miss moments like that because they are serving. Him pounding his trident into the coffin of a fallen buddy was hard. But the worst moment of all is when the screen goes black; the words scrawl across the screen declaring his death and real footage of his funeral procession was shown as the credits rolled. At that moment the tears came. So many bystanders lined up on the roads and interstate overpasses to honor this man's life, it was both heartening and haunting at the same time.

Sacrifice. Soldiers embody it; Chris Kyle certainly did, from the moment he earned his trident to the day he was killed trying to help a man struggling with PTSD like he’d done so many others, helping himself in the process.  Chris Kyle is a man that deserves to be honored as a hero, not forgotten. His legacy is not cemented because of his skills as a marksman but in his life of service on and off the battlefield.

For what it’s worth I’ve never been to a movie where not a word was uttered as people left until tonight.  Except for the sound of footsteps and the physical bodies of others you’d have thought you were alone. American Sniper is a powerful movie. It’s a heavy movie that shouldn’t be seen as simply another war movie. It carries a weighty message.


I want to say thank you as inadequate as those words seem to the service men and women of this country. Your sacrifice won’t be forgotten.